Wedding Planning

I never thought that I am going to be a wedding-obsessed bride, but I am gradually turning out to be one. What a frightening thought. Growing up in Taiwan, weddings never seem to involve so many different aspects of planning. Hmm... I may be wrong. They just involve other different aspects of planning. Maybe I can put them to comparison side by side..

Wedding Date
US: Usually on a Saturday. Other days of the week may be considered, but not as common.
Taiwan: Any time during the week. If during the week, it will be at night.

Wedding Planning period
US: In general, 6 months to 1 year seem to be a pretty good bet to make sure everything is available

Taiwan: In general, you can plan a wedding in 1 or 2 months because you probably can get the opening slots for everything

Wedding Location
US: Everywhere, i.e. churches, parks, jumping out of a plane, in a barn, home.....

Taiwan: Anywhere you can have a public wedding, i.e. in front of your house, court, church, restaurants...
I guess this is pretty similar

Wedding traditions
US: Nowadays, traditions can be broken. It really depends on what the bride and/or the groom wants, or what the budget allows.

Taiwan: It depends what types of family are involved. My sister who got married last year married into a very traditional Taiwanese family. There are many traditions that bride's family needs to follow. It involved a chicken figurine that was made out of gold, and some other stuff. My family is pretty new age compared to the groom's family in these matters so we had to learn a lot of the traditions to avoid offending the other family..

Wedding ceremony
US: Usually an officiant performs the wedding, gives an encouragement speech, and recites the "Dearly Beloved" passage to the bride and groom to repeat. Then comes the final announcement. Of course, there is the signing of the marriage license.

Taiwan: A court wedding probably resembles an usual US wedding. If you have the wedding anywhere else, usually the groom or the bride invites a VIP to be the main figure of the wedding and give a long speech. You don't even have to know the VIP, as long as they agree to be part of your wedding. That brings prestige to your wedding. After this main speech, there may be several other ones. One good thing is, you may be able to eat while you listen, which means you won't be listening to any of it if you are eating... :D

Wedding Reception
US: Usually happens after the wedding ceremony, and usually the most costly item for your wedding budget. The reception site may need to be booked up to 1 year ahead. It depends on the area and the bride and the groom, different types of food are provided. It can be simple hor o’derve, sitdown dinner, or I-want-to-get-to-the-food buffet.

Taiwan: Usually it's sitdown meal type of reception. If the wedding is held in a restaurant, usually you can eat and drink while watching the wedding takes place. If the wedding is held in front of groom's home, they have catering going and you can still eat and drink while watching the wedding takes place..

Wedding Expenses
US: Traditionally the bride's family takes care of the bill for the wedding, and the groom's family takes care of the rehearsal dinner. Nowadays, if both the bride and groom are working, they sometimes will try to take care of everything themselves.

Taiwan: Traditionally the bride's family takes care of the bills for the engagement announcement and the "Happy Cake" that accompanies the announcement. The groom's family takes care of everything that happnes on the wedding day. As in the US, nowadays, the bride and groom may try to take care of everything themselves if they can.

I am not sure how it's going to happen for our wedding. The traditions will collide.. Pray for things to work out all right for us.

I am just happy that all my friends from church, and my family that are close have already offer to help, only if I can pull myself together in the inital planning...